Music Score for Copper Beaches

I’ve had a very productive few weeks, having submitted three short stories to various anthologies and also sent my first full-length adventure-romance novel, Ravenfall, to my publisher for consideration.

Copper Beaches, as the name suggests, was something I first wrote while noodling about with Sherlockian ideas – though the connection to Holmes isn’t at all obvious from the lyric. It actually relates to an idea I had about BBC Watson having had a more reckless youth, and these lyrics represent the decision he made to find a more constructive path. Once it was done, I felt the whole thing could do extra service as a song in Chapter Seven of Kitty and Cadaver.

In that chapter, Laszlo (the band violinist), Yuka (drummer) and Sal (guitar) are teaching the song to new recruits, Kitty and Stephen. Thematically in that book, the lyrics are very relevant to all three of those singing it.

Here’s the lyric on its own:

Copper beaches

A seaside in rain and a hollow in the heart And sand is a grave for rocks and bone Smashed up by the tide and time An ancient stage Where we’ll go with age and we always go alone

And the sun’s going down and it’s bleeding into An ocean to swallow the sorrow down And the bronze on the water and silver horizon In the blazing light, I keep my eyes on the copper that’s staining the place where I stand I’m on firmer ground in this copper sand.

It’s nothing to anyone how old is the earth It’s nothing to the sea that my mother gave birth And the sun doesn’t care if I live or die But it’s such a beautiful sky

And everyone’s bleeding and lonely and scared And the world wouldn’t notice if anyone cared But we do And we’re too small to matter to oceans and skies And our hearts are too broken to love after lies But we do But we do

This tiny heart in the burning world Is finding a flame in these copper beaches the sun doesn’t care if I live or die It’s such a beautiful sky

And everyone’s bleeding and lonely and scared And the world wouldn’t notice if anyone cared But we do And we’re too small to matter to oceans and skies And our hearts are too broken to love after lies But we do
But we do

And here is the score:

The song is meant to be very rock – in my head there are drums, bass and lead guitar, maybe keyboards. I was listening to a lot of Shinedown at the time, so think of that, a bit.

I’d be all for someone having a go at playing it/arranging it and sending the result to me, if you have time on your hands. 🙂

Workshops and Talks

Narrelle is an incredibly knowledgeable, articulate and energetic presenter. That coupled with her great sense of humour made for an extremely entertaining evening. Olivia Simaitis, Waurn Ponds Library.
Book Narrelle M Harris as a speaker